From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari will, on Friday, give the keynote address at the Afreximbank and the Nigeria Governors Forum Announce the 2nd African Sub-Sovereign Governments Conference in Abuja.
In a statement by Director, Media and Public Affairs Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, the NGF meeting will hold on Thursday, September 29th.
President Buhari will address the 36 states governors and their counterparts on the African continent as meet to discuss pertinent subnational alliances.
According to the statement, Director General of the NGF, Asishana Okauru, in his invitation to all Governors to attend an in-person meeting Thursday, said the meeting which will kickoff at 2pm at the New NGF Secretariat complex, will witnessed the commissioning by the NGF Chairman, Kayode Fayemi.
For the second Conference of African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network (AfSNET), in a joint statement, the two institutions said, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration with the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), said the theme is: “African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network, Championing Africa’s development”.
The Conference will herald, among other things, the adoption of an institutional and governance framework for the African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network (AfSNET), an Afreximbank initiative, launched in 2021 at the inaugural conference in Durban, South Africa, with the mission of promoting peer learning, cooperation and collaboration among sub-sovereign governments.
AfSNET is expected to boost intra-African trade, investment, industrialisation and development. Governments, state and regional governors, premiers, etc. are expected from all parts of Africa.
According to the NGF Chairman, Fayemi, “the NGF is partnering with Afreximbank on this initiative because many countries’ policies are often developed by the central governments, while the subnational entities, either at state, province, or prefecture where the rubber meets the road as the drivers of growth are left behind. The subnational is where people feel the impact of governance and it is about time that the subnational leapfrog to a decent pedestal where constructive progress in the economy, like manufacturing, trade and commerce is enhanced. This ‘African Sub-Sovereign Governments Conference’, in my opinion, will attract substantial leverage to the subnational and its peoples.”